Snowden A Hero? Gates Says No, Woz Says Yes 335
hcs_$reboot writes "In a lengthy interview from Rolling Stone, Bill Gates, was asked: 'Do you consider [Snowden] a hero or a traitor?' The Microsoft founder responded, 'I certainly wouldn't characterize him as a hero. ... You won't find much admiration from me'. What about government surveillance? 'The government has such ability to do these things. ... But the specific techniques they use become unavailable if they're discussed in detail. Rolling Stone retorts that privacy can be an issue: 'We want safety, but we also want privacy,' says the journalist. Bill Gates tells his main priority focuses on stopping the bad guys: 'Let's say you knew nothing was going on. How would you feel? I mean, seriously. I would be very worried. Technology arms the bad guys with orders of magnitude more [power]. Not just bad guys. Crazy guys.' Meanwhile, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak expressed the opposite opinion about Snowden at a tech conference in Germany. 'He is a hero to me, but he may be a traitor to other people and I understand the reasons for them to think that way. I believe that Snowden believed, like I do, that the U.S. has a right to freedom. '"
No Surprises (Score:4, Interesting)
It doesn't surprise me that Bill Gates would identify with the megomaniacal dictatorship mentality that permeates our Federal Government. He was the megomanical dictator of a multinational corporation for so many years, that he can't understand an organization working in any other manner.
Re:Who would characterize Gates as a hero? (Score:4, Interesting)
Anybody in Africa who's received a polio vaccine from Gates' foundation would. I'm sure they'd be much more likely to call Gates a hero than Snowden, too.
I don't know.... if Windows, SQL Server, and Microsoft Office weren't so darned expensive, or they went away, so we could be using Open source software instead, there might be 1000x the funds being donated for Polio vaccines in Africa.
Gates is labelled a hero..... but maybe he's the villain depriving large numbers of people of the chance to be heros :)